After several embarkations with Princess, we decided to embark with them once again. Princess never failed to provide us with all of our needs and leave us wanting more after disembarking The service and the people who work there are very professional and kind. Our dining hosts, Vincent, Christian, and Peter were all so compassionate and motivated with their work. Our room was refreshed every day and we were consistently welcomed home by the room server. Not tomention the little chocolates that were provided everyday for us to munch on. Princess provided great service for the Sea Days as well Although there were a few moments when the boat was too shaky, it was entertaining majority of the time. There were consistent events provided for the passengers so they wouldn’t get bored on the ship. There was not a single moment that was uncomfortable during our stay and we would love to return again. Read Less

My wife and I are in our 50s and we’ve been on 17 cruises (7 Royal Caribbean, 4 Celebrity, 4 Princess, 1 Holland America, 1 Norwegian). This was our second Mediterranean cruise. This trip was an anniversary trip. Our trip started with a flight on Lufthansa out of Chicago O’Hare with a stop in Munich (We love this airport) and then on to Athens for a couple days pre-cruise. We flew roundtrip on Lufthansa but took a detour from Barcelona post cruise to Paris for three days on Joon Air which is a new “modern discount airline” from Air France. We enjoyed all flights. Hotels: In Athens we stayed at the Herodian Hotel. This was a pleasant surprise. It’s a boutique hotel literally 987 meters from the Acropolis. Our room faced the Acropolis and was large and modern. The room included breakfast which was a traditional Euro/American buffet style. I’ll post pictures with this review. The staff was welcoming and even left us a nice note welcoming us and congratulating us on our 25th wedding anniversary along with some Greek crackers. In Paris we stayed at the Hilton Paris Opera. This was another nice surprise. Its located near the Galleries Lafayette and Printemps Department store. The hotel is located only 15-20 minutes from all the major Paris historical spots. Close enough to get to and far enough from the center that you aren’t paying for location. The staff here were also fantastic. We are Hilton Honors members and chose to stay on the Executive Floor. For our anniversary, the Hilton upgraded us to a corner large spacious room that had a large bathroom with heated floors. I highly recommend staying at both hotels. The Ship: This was our second voyage of Crown. The first was in 2008. We enjoyed Crown back then but felt the public spaces were crowed and entertainment was terrible. Crown post drydock is so much better. The décor is just as we remembered and there is a much better use of space. Entertainment is now top notch and matches our experiences on Regal. We have never been fans of production shows, but I have to say that the new Encore show on Crown was spectacular. Embarkation: We took a cab from the Herodian Hotel (20 euros) to the port of Piraeus. At embarkation we arrived at the Piraeus Cruise Port at around 11:30am. The port was not too crowded, and we were able to check in quite fast…or so we thought. Here was the one negative experience. After the Princess Rep took our passports and all other pertinent information she went to get our room keys….and couldn’t find them. She asked us to wait and she would contact someone to get them. We thought this was odd as it has never happened before. Well, we waited 20 minutes, and no one came to give us our key cards. I finally spoke with an officer who checked and said that there was no request for our keys. After another 20 minutes we were finally given our keys and were headed on the ship. This was the one blip on a spectacular cruise. I mentioned the dry dock earlier. The dry dock included some very nice updates. Stateroom: Our Cabin on Caribe Deck 10 Midship (C419) has been updated. We love this location because all the cabins on this deck have nice deep balconies. All staterooms on Crown have been updated with the Princes Luxury Bed. Let me tell you….it’s luxurious!! We usually sleep well on cruises, but this bed was sooo comfortable. Also, our Room Steward Donna was very attentive and efficient. The pool area updated one bar (MIX) formerly Mermaids and split up the pizza and burger stations. Prego is now Slice and has Stromboli and deep-dish focaccia. Still the best pizza at sea IMHO. The Sundays Ice Cream Bar is now attached to slice and is called Coffee and Cones. The best pool area upgrade is a remake of the Trident Grill. It’s now The Salty Dog Grill (a Salty Dog Gastro Pub has been added inside the Wheelhouse Bar). This is absolutely the best deck food at sea. You can get a burger or chicken sandwich, fries, bacon cheese or chili cheese), all beef hotdogs, and chipotle lime chicken tacos (my personal new go-to deck food!). Other upgrades on Crown include Club Class mini-suites (We didn’t meet anyone who stayed in one) and the shops onboard have upgraded clothing and merchandise. Dining: We always enjoy the Princess main dining room food. The voyage was no different. As part of the anniversary package we purchased, we ate at Sabatini’s (located on deck 16) which is one of our favorite specialty restaurants. We were joined by our main dining table mates who were also celebrating their anniversary. Our server was fantastic!! He was personable and informative. When we told him it was our table mates anniversary, he stopped what he was doing and proceeded to bring out a cake for them! This topped off a wonderful filling meal of traditional Italian food. As an aside, the anniversary package also included champagne and chocolates in our stateroom, a chocolate cake served at the meal of our choice, a sign and balloons on our door and a picture of our choice with a nice frame. Well worth it! Our breakfasts were eaten mostly in the Horizon Court Buffet which seems to have gotten smaller bit the food is still decent. Breakfast as all you expect plus an omelet station (you order and they give you a ticket that you hand to a server who brings a freshly cooked omelet to you. I love that they hand you your napkin and silverware as you enter the food section and a server brings you drinks. Entertainment: Entertainment is throughout the ship and has been upgraded. Our Cruise Director Fernando got on the ship when we did and he never missed a beat. This cruise was during the group stage of the Word Cup and a schedule of all games with viewing locations were in each Princess Patter. Musical entertainment was very diverse and all over the ship. There was plenty to see and do each night. There was of course MUTS which showed movies, concerts and soccer games throughout the voyage. Ports and Shore Excursions: Athens: While this was the embarkation point, we had a day and half to visit the Acropolis, eat some great Greek food and walk around the Plaka. I’d spend one or two more days here next time. Santorini: This is a tender port. We took a ship excursion that included a stop at Santo Winery where we sampled Greek wine, cheese, olives and enjoyed the views of the ship and the island. Then we went to Oia which is the village with all the blue domed roofs. What a place! Spectacular views. After Oia we went to Fira which is the village where you get back to ship by walking down 588 steps to the tender area, riding on a donkey or our personal choice, taking the gondola down. We shopped and ate a traditional Greek lunch with a view of the Aegaeon Sea. The tour ended here, and we were on our own to get back to the ship. Kotor, Montenegro (Tender stop): Very old city which you arrive sailing through a fjord for 3 hours. I was up at 5:30am filming the entry…We were pleasantly surprised by this port and just took the tender and walked the old city on our own. Messina (Sicily): We used Joe Banana Tours for this port. The tour we chose was the Godfather Tour. We shared a van with others from CC and visited Castelmola, a hill town above Taormina with views of Mt. Etna and the sea (it was overcast so no views), Savoca which is a local town made famous by Godfather II, Forza d’Agro a medieval town and then Taormina. I highly recommend using Joe Banana tours while in Sicily. Naples: For this port we used Romeinlimo Tours. Once again, we shared a van with others from CC. Our driver, Alex met us at the port and took us on a ride through the Amalfi Coast to Positano where were enjoyed the views and walked the streets of the wonderful city on a hill. From Positano we went to Sorrento where we had a fantastic lunch, walked along the streets, shopped and sampled limoncello. After Sorrento, Alex took us to Herculaneum. Herculaneum was a resort town not far from Pompeii which is smaller and better preserved due to its closeness to Mt. Vesuvius. RomeinLimo is one of our favorite tour companies and also highly recommend them. We Disembarked in Barcelona. This was the most organized disembarkation we’ve had. We pre-purchased transfers to the airport and were on our way to Paris! This was a phenomenal cruise. We can’t wait to sail on Princess again and look forward to planning our next Med Cruise!! Read Less

Cruised with Princess a few years ago and it was brilliant, so was looking forward to a trip round the Med seeing some new sights. Embarkation went ok, cabin ok, food, drinks, service and trips all ok. The only snags i consider worth mentioning are the standard of entertainment, i have been on other cruises and with other cruise lines so i have room for comparison, but the entertainment on this cruise was shockingly poor. There was only one evening of 'Broadway' style production, with dancers performing an awful 70's medley which was high school production at best complete with sexist undertones, unnecessary in this day and age. Other nights were a particularly bad comedienne who was about as funny as a burning orphanage, a singer who had a bit part for 10 minutes in the lion king, admittedly he had a good voice but they had him sing two nights running as there was no alternative act. There was plenty of karaoke nights in other bars if that's your thing, along with knobbly knees and Mr and Mrs. The house band were OK but once you had heard one set the others on subsequent nights seemed the same. It was very very lazy entertainment. It wasn't all bad, there was a Frank Sinatra tribute act who i personally think should have been one of the theatre acts, not resigned to a side bar. Another snag, photographs, i have never understood why they print off hundreds of photos of guests, taken by the on board photographers, and charge a fortune for them ($25 per pic). As most never get sold. What a waste. Why not charge less, say half the price, you would sell twice as many = less waste, save the planet. A general question, why is the casino on board cruise ships so big? The one on Crown Princess is massive and on a good day there would only be a hand full of punters in there, what a strange waste of real estate that could be used for a better purpose. In all, an OK cruise with poor entertainment. My wife and i have decided not to cruise with Princess next time, we will try another line we haven't used before. Read Less

We chose to do a 6 week cruise package as coming from Australia it is to far to come for just 2 or 3 weeks. As far as my husband and I are concerned we enjoyed our time onboard the Crown Princess we found it a much better ship than the Golden which we were on last year.. The staff were always helpful and we felt that they represented Princess Cruise Line very well...Our cabin steward was a delight and always ready to help in anyway. The entertainment was top class especially the Crown Princess singers and dancers. and as we were on for 6 weeks we did see repeat shows, but never bored. We did have one hiccup with a Princess excursion, but that was sorted out to our satisfaction. The Mediterranean has to be one of the best cruises as the weather was sunny and warm and the seas calm. We were lucky enough to be in the top 40 passenger couples for the Captain's Circle parties. so that in its self was a real bonus... Yes we enjoyed this cruise and liked the layout of the ship. Read Less

We chose this cruise because of the itinerary . My husband and I took our children, spouses and grandchildren (party of ten) on the 7 day cruise. My husband and I had gone on a previous cruise on another cruise line a few years ago and wanted to take our family to see some of these places. We booked 3 balcony rooms and 2 rooms across the hall. We were very disappointed in the cruise. The food was just o.k. - not as good as the food on other cruise lines that we have been on. There were no extras such as making animals out of towels, ice sculptures, waiters dancing like we have had on previous lines. We have always loved the waiters and cabin personnel on other cruises and hated to leave them. We met no one we felt that way about on this cruise. We found the crew members indifferent and not very friendly with the exception of the girls handing out plates & silverware in the buffet dining room. The cabins were very nice and the public areas. Most of the excursions were excellent. Read Less

To see the best of Europe, explored Rome before embarkment, embarkment was very smooth and we were able to embark early. The cabin was excellent with a balcony that had a great view of the coastline for most of the cruise. The cabin was clean/tidy and always serviced regularly. The only fault was we were directly under the pool/bar deck and early 5.30-6 am we were woken with the setting up of the deck chairs and tables, and they would scrap them along the deck and this went on for a very long time. The shore excursion were great except on a couple we were not able to have a drink/toilet break or lunch, so at the end of the excursion everyone was thirsty and hungry. There enough pools and spas for everyone to be comfortable and the water was a comfortable temperature. There was not enough quality evening entertainment on this cruise. The service of the staff was exceptional. The shops on board appeared to have something for everyone, the pricing was reasonable. The food and service at all the dining centers was of exceptional quality. Read Less

we chose this cruise for its itinerary. we boarded in Civitavecchia and disembarked in Barcelona 2 weeks later. from the get-go, we noticed that the crew was extremely courteous, friendly and attentive. the food quality was good-excellent especially in the main dining room and at the specialty restaurant, sabatini's; and, there was a wide range of vegetarian and gluten-free choices on the menus. we had been to many of these ports many times before, so it became a challenge to find something new to explore. 1. at Mykonos, we took an excursion to the island of Delos. Excellent. 2. at Santorini, i took the donkey path down (25 minutes and shaky knees). one off the bucket list. 3. at Piraeus/Athens, we paid 4.5 euros for a 24 hour any means of transportation ticket. look for the X80 stand about 100 meters from the terminal. we used these tickets to ride to and from Athens and to use the metro to get around in Athens. we also visited the Acropolis Museum (5 euros). a must-see. second one off the bucket list. 4. an excellent value is the hop on hop off bus in Kotor. a party of 2 pays 20 euros each; however, the 3rd person in your party pays only 10 euros; and, maybe even less for the 4th and so on. you can try to bargain with the ticket seller. for our party of 3, the average cost was about 17 euros; and, we got a ride to Risan with admission to the mosaic museum, a ride to Perast and admission to the maritime museum and a guided tour of Kotor. you can't beat this as the cruise ship cost or taxi fare would be about $150 or 100 euros. for 5 euros, you can have a boat ride to the island of the Church of Our Lady of the Rocks. beautiful views of this island from Perast. Read Less

We chose this cruise predominantly because it was convenient both in length and destination. Nonetheless, the itinerary was great and easy enough to plan shore excursions with local agents or simply going ashore on your own. The ship was in good condition having been refurbished in March last year. The beds were extremely comfortable and our mini suite was very spacious (more space than we really needed to be honest but it was the only category of cabin left available). The staff were very helpful and professional at all times and nothing seemed to be too much trouble. We arranged a transfer from Rome airport direct to the ship so we were not able to explore before but we have been to Rome before. I would recommend anyone see Rome beforehand if they have never been before. Embarkation was very smooth with no wait time. We chose anytime dining but actually only visited the main dining rooms on 3 occasions as the food in Horizon Court was delicious. The entertainment was disapppointing though especially the shows in the main Princess Theatre. Most interesting ports were definitely Salerno where we visited Caserta Palace, Viestri sur Mer, and Salerno itself (having already been to Pompeii and Amalfi coast on a previous cruise), and Kotor where we visited Budva, Perast and Kotor. Corfu, Crete and Mykonos are all easy enough to visit independently although all required a short transfer from the cruise ship port to places of main interest. In the case of Mykonos, there were two choices - a 15-20 minute local bus ride costing €1 each way or a 5-10 minute local sea-bus costing €2 each way which is what I chose. In Crete, there was a local bus service from the port costing €1.70 each way which took approximately 15-20 minutes from the cruise ship port (new port) to Old Town. Sadly, Princess arranged the bus transport in Corfu for those who didn’t want to walk the long distance and charged $14 per person. We chose to use a local taxi which we shared with another couple - total cost for the 4 of us was €10 (i.e. €2.50 per person)! Again, in Athens, we arranged airport transfer with Princess so didn’t see the city before departing. The transfer takes approximately 45-60 minutes so their transfer service at $29 per person seems to be a cheaper option than the potential cost of a taxi which was estimated to be around €79. Read Less

The ship is old, the WiFi is terrible, especially for the price and the food was meh. The menu was repetitive. This was my very first cruise and I was quite underwhelmed. We didn’t even get the horn when we pulled out of Barcelona. The stops were absolutely amazing. Which is the point of the cruise I guess. Florenc felt very rushed, and it felt like we were led to shop in the ship affiliated store. Not that I minded, but I would have liked more time to explore. They need to specify the excursions are a bit strenuous for the elderly. Spell out the walking, rocky terrain, etc. some stops were too much for them. Not much to do for the kids, everything shut down at 11pm. Mid trip, the bathroom began to smell like a Porta potty Read Less

The destinations were great, more time at Messina and Crete would have made this portion of the trip outstanding (i.e. 10 to 12 hours at these ports would be ideal). 14 out of the 17 days we smelled sewage at various times on various decks while at sea, the other days were in ports. Passenger should not see bubbled up paint or rust anywhere where passengers can access, especially near the Serenity and on the Promenade Decks. This Boat is only 13 Years old. People pay a lot of money to go on these cruises, but, there was a constant push to sell extras even after saying NO! Other Examples of just being cheap: Ice Cream - free, pay extra for the sprinkles. Hamburgers - free, but put cheese and bacon on it, pay extra. Pizza same thing. The Entertainment was Marginal, there cultural nights in Barcelona and Athens with the local dances were effectively meaningless. There was No explanation of what the dances being performed are, nor there significance, purpose, or meaning. Minimal variety of the entertainment Port and shore excursions were more than 2x's the cost of doing it yourselves. Do a little research before you go and save a lot of money, a little planning goes a long way. Some of the sights you see on the Princess Shore Excursions are Drive Bys. But they do seem to find time to stop to Shop. If word got around that someone had a couple decks of cards and chips for a Texas Hold'em game no one would use their electronic table. Example 3 players 1 looses $40, 1 wins $2 another wins $10 and Princess Cruise Lines Takes $28 Read Less